D&D General Greyhawk setting material

[Urriak Uruk]

I think such a product isultimately likely, but I wouldn't bet on it that soon: Dark Sun and Planescape will come first, probably Dragonlance, and possibly Spelljammer.

I predict a 2024 Greyhawk anniversary release.

But, I think Ghosts of Saltmarsh might be something that we see repeated: D series, A Series, N1 probably (the single best selling older edition product on the DMsGuild, randomly, and just around the corner from Saltmarsh), and those sorts of things set in new Greyhawk sandboxes here and there.

Reason i think it could be coming a lot sooner is that it doesn't need a bunch of new rules that need to first be tested through Unearthed Arcana. Much easier to push out quickly.

 

[Coroc]

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this thread just took a disturbing turn....

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Whoaa was just a harmless joke with a hundred years old beard, did not mean no offense and to further apologize myself i did not start the "forum roleplay" here so please don't feel offended.

I would think that they could just take the 1983 boxed set and update it with some of the notes and adventure hooks from Dragon and future products (and ignore the Wars). Tieflings have apparently already been introduced (with Iuz back in his land, you'd think that demons would be around more, and tieflings a natural result of that). Dragonborn might be a bit harder, but could be presented as a new race just recently appearing in Faerun, but rumors of them in other lands had been heard for years.

The Valley Elves were unique to Greyhawk. In 1E days, they were a bit different, being taller and stronger than normal elves. I think 5E lumped them in with one of the other common group of elves.

Well in my current GH campaign tieflings are playable race but with a precondition:

They must be descendants of devils, not demons, If they originate from Iuz demon horde then they are on the wrong side.

 

[Parmandur]

Reason i think it could be coming a lot sooner is that it doesn't need a bunch of new rules that need to first be tested through Unearthed Arcana. Much easier to push out quickly.

Fair point: on the other hand, in addition to popularity concerns, the crunchier settings enjoy design priority as they need more work.

 

[Hussar]

Yeah, I gotta admit, my money is on 2024. Build it up for a year or so beforehand, starting now with testing the waters with Ghosts of Saltmarsh, maybe a couple more adventure paths in the future - I could see the Slave Lords getting the treatment - and then release in 2024. Five years from now? Yeah, could totally see that.

Lots of time to gauge reactions to any changes they might want to make and what they might want to include. Do we include Paizohawk? Greyhawk wars? and various other goodies.

 

[Coroc]

Well my hope is they rather do not touch it. It has last been seeing official use in 3e, and not much back there.
Most of the younger players have heard of it but other than eventually temple of the elemental evil 20 years ago and refeatured in DDO (They also did put in slave lords) it has not been featured in any recent product.
It simply would not make much sense and as i pointed out before:

The rules might be simply vanilla, and nothing new required rulewise but
the fluff of the setting the tone and the feel is out of date, it does not appeal to many of todays generations roleplayers. They do not want limitations, political incorrect puns, and are rather into worlds like Eberron or maybe Ravnica than into Greyhawk which most of them would see as a blander version of FR if an official product would try to shoehorn all modernisms into that settings.

For you grognards (i am a grognard too): Why aren't you much more interested in official rules on how to do Darksun with 5e or planescape or Dragonlance?
And i do not mean new content, which is really not needed, I absolutely mean the RULES
How shall i do Halfgiants or thrikreen in a balanced realistic way (Bound accuracy!)? How shall i do dragonlances in 5e?
How about minor quality equipment? How do i do the high magic partially needed in Planescape right?

What is unclear about how to do Greyhawk in 5e? Nothing! absolutely nothing! We do not need anything for Greyhawk 5e it is all out there and afaik in available in .pdf reprint if soemone needs the stories.

If you consider yourself able to DM a Greyhawk campaign then you absolutely should be able to convert the existing material to 5e because that is the easier part of the modification of official greyhawk material you are gona need to do to make things playable and smooth!

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Reason i think it could be coming a lot sooner is that it doesn't need a bunch of new rules that need to first be tested through Unearthed Arcana. Much easier to push out quickly.

But would a product without "a bunch of new rules" (i.e. crunch) actually sell?

 

[Azzy]

I get what you're saying, but, then again, if we're talking about original Greyhawk, well, one of the primary artists was Erol Otis, and he wasn't shy about "fantasy" art.

To me, Greyhawk is far more "Weird Tales" than "realistic fantasy". Look at the Drow art for GH. All spikes an buckles, even back in the 80's. And, so many of the stories to come out of Gygax' home game had so many weird elements - traveling to Barroom, trapping characters on space ships, actual space ships landing, dimensional hopping, time travel.

For modern inspirations for Greyhawk, honestly, I'd look more at the New Weird movements out there. Podcasts like Drabblecast and online story sources like Swords and Sorcery Magazine . Weird tales and things like that. A lot less of the "faux medieval" stuff and a lot more of the "WHADAHELLIZZAT?" sort of stories.

Yeah, there's the weird (and sometimes wacky) that was not uncommon to early D&D art. Errol Otus was presumably on something. I thing there is definitely room for that. My main concern is getting the artwork visually distinct.

Why not both? The faux-Medieval stuff makes the weird that much weirder when it goes down.

Agreed. I think such a difference could make non-human cultures stand out from the standard human milieu.

 

[Hussar]

Well, I guess my point is, I want the art to differentiate from Forgotten Realms. The Realms, for the most part in 5e art anyway, really nails down the whole "Faux Medieval" look. I mean, here's a shot from Dragon Heist - the Yawning Portal:

No weird buckles or spikes or anything like that. The clothes are pretty solidly early Renaissance, and, throughout the module, the architecture and the art follows this style. If we do the same thing for Greyhawk, well, it's not really going to differentiate itself enough.

Dark Sun and Planescape have been mentioned in this thread. While I am not a Planescape fan, I have to admit that it really, REALLY has a unique aesthetic. As does Dark Sun. You can pick up a picture from either setting and say, "Yup, this is a picture from _".

I think that if we go with the more "realistic" (you know what I mean) historical style art, then it's just going to look like Forgotten Realms. Greyhawk is WEIRD. There's bizarre stuff all over the place. Let the weird flag fly.

 

[Parmandur]

Yeah, there's the weird (and sometimes wacky) that was not uncommon to early D&D art. Errol Otus was presumably on something. I thing there is definitely room for that. My main concern is getting the artwork visually distinct.


Agreed. I think such a difference could make non-human cultures stand out from the standard human milieu.

If it is primarily monsters and Adventure material, probably yes.

 

[Parmandur]

Well, I guess my point is, I want the art to differentiate from Forgotten Realms. The Realms, for the most part in 5e art anyway, really nails down the whole "Faux Medieval" look. I mean, here's a shot from Dragon Heist - the Yawning Portal:

No weird buckles or spikes or anything like that. The clothes are pretty solidly early Renaissance, and, throughout the module, the architecture and the art follows this style. If we do the same thing for Greyhawk, well, it's not really going to differentiate itself enough.

Dark Sun and Planescape have been mentioned in this thread. While I am not a Planescape fan, I have to admit that it really, REALLY has a unique aesthetic. As does Dark Sun. You can pick up a picture from either setting and say, "Yup, this is a picture from _".

I think that if we go with the more "realistic" (you know what I mean) historical style art, then it's just going to look like Forgotten Realms. Greyhawk is WEIRD. There's bizarre stuff all over the place. Let the weird flag fly.

Forgotten Realms has the Renn Faire vibe down pat: for Greyhawk, I'd like to see more of an old pulp vibe, too.